Technology CAD Systems

As the cost of developing new semiconductor technology at ever higher bit/gate densities continues to grow, the value of using accurate TCAD simu lation tools for design and development becomes more and more of a necessity to compete in today's business. The ability to tradeoff wafer starts in an advanced piloting facility for simulation analysis and optimization utilizing a "virtual fab" S/W tool set is a clear economical asset for any semiconductor development company. Consequently, development of more sophisticated, accurate, physics-based, and easy-to-use device and process modeling tools will receive continuing attention over the coming years. The cost of maintaining and paying for one's own internal modeling tool development effort, however, has caused many semiconductor development companies to consider replacing some or all of their internal tool development effort with the purchase of vendor modeling tools. While some (noteably larger) companies have insisted on maintaining their own internal modeling tool development organization, others have elected to depend totally on the tools offered by the TCAD vendors and have consequently reduced their mod eling staffs to a bare minimal support function. Others are seeking to combine the best of their internally developed tool suite with "robust", "proven" tools provided by the vendors, hoping to achieve a certain synergy as well as savings through this approach. In the following sections we describe IBM's internally developed suite of TCAD modeling tools and show several applications of the use of these tools.

Klappentext

The proceedings of the first "Workshop on Technology CAD Systems" is an authoritative tutorial on CAD software systems for the physical design of semiconductor devices and manufacturing processes. Fourteen invited papers by academic and industrial representatives from USA, Europe, and Japan, as well as from commercial software vendors provide an excellent overview of the work in this area. This book covers the following topics: Coupling and integration of process simulation, device simulation, parameter extraction, and circuit simulation, technology CAD requirements, architectures and strategies of existing CAD systems, implementation and software aspects, practical applications and experiences with technology CAD, and directions of future work in this field.

Inhalt
Technology CAD at AT&T.- Technology CAD at IBM.- Technology CAD at Intel.- Perspective on TCAD Integration at Berkeley.- A TCAD Framework for Development and Manufacturing.- Technology CAD at Stanford University.- An Integrated Design Environment for Semiconductors.- The SATURN Technology CAD System.- The STORM Technology CAD System.- The Viennese Integrated System for Technology CAD Applications.- Technology CAD at NEC.- Technology CAD at OKI.- The MASTER Framework.- CAESAR: The Virtual IC Factory as an Integrated TCAD User Environment.- Author Index.